| This week was in some respects a trying one, but we have made it through! M, the two year old, has decided to become a little tornado while we are doing school which has resulted in me coming out of the kitchen/dining area at the end of the day to a gigantic mess in the living room. This leaves me a little deflated after a sometimes long day of teaching but fortunately, even after a long day of learning, D is willing to help clean up the mess he had nothing to do with making. I make sure to praise him up and tell him how much easier he is making my job when he helps even if he didn't create the mess. On another M note, he is asking to “use bathroom”. This is much earlier than the other boys did, and must have to do with seeing all of us use the bathroom. I am not pursuing a strident potty training regimen as yet, but am putting him on the potty with his cushion-y Elmo potty seat whenever he asks at home. Usually the request comes after the deed has been done in his diaper, but we have gotten results of all types in the potty too. So that's something. At the end of last week we had a huge meltdown in Babies-R-Us while I was there to get a gift card for my best friend's one year old (Happy Birthday Week, Alexander!). M wanted to use bathroom when the older boys and I went. Of course he only started wanting to use bathroom the day before, so I was not about to sit him on a public restroom seat just yet. You would have thought the world was ending with all the wailing and writhing he did! Luckily all we needed was a gift card and a pack of diapers. My goodness! H, my Jr. Kindergartener, has been very patient with all of us. He obediently waits for us to be done with sometimes long days of lessons for his older brother. He never whines about not being able to watch TV and willingly tries to keep M busy and out of trouble. H's lessons are not difficult at all, as to almost be a non-challenge, but he enjoys sitting at the table with us to do them. He spends some time drawing and making paper airplanes while we are occupied with all things 2nd Grade in the kitchen. Thanks, H! D, my firstborn, has been having a rough week in math. He is making gains, though. I'm wondering if it's just that he is starting to wrestle with and figure out concepts he is being taught. We are using Singapore Math this year and they teach a little differently than our prior curriculum, so there has been a little learning curve with that. We seem to be emerging from the curve and he is able to solve problems he would have previously just looked at, said “too hard”, and never even attempted. If he feels stuck, I can remind him of which step to start with and he can finish the problem. I love that. What I didn't love this week was taking several hours to get through the math practice. D often has trouble staying “on track” when left to work independently, resulting in me sitting next to him all day to be his lesson minder. This week I had other things to do that had piled up like make sure we have clean clothes to wear and clean plates to eat from, so I left him from time to time to fend for himself. That did not work so well. He might have done only one problem (or more often none) in a 10-15 minute span without me there reminding him to move on. Tuesday we worked solely on math for over 5 hours (we did take breaks, but it was almost all we did)! The consequence was that he did not learn his spelling words that day. They do a spelling review game at the coop on Wednesdays, so he was at a disadvantage in that he had not had the words introduced to him. I only hope that with one day's practice yesterday, he can do well on his spelling quiz today. If not, that's the natural consequence of taking all day on one subject: your other subjects suffer. While I am not letting this get to me as much as it did last year, I am still at a loss to get him moving on his own. He is maturing in other areas that were problematic in past years, so maybe it is just a matter of time. While we were working on math yesterday, M confiscated H's Smencil. I bought one each in Rootbeer for the boys who do things with pencils (D and H), but didn't really think M needed one. They smell yummy. M was smelling and loving this Smencil and playing with the plastic tube it came in, and H of course wanted it back. M takes the Smencil and holds it close, then in his best Soup Nazi* expression says, “No pencil for you!”. LOL. I think I should get one for M, don't you? *I don't personally use the word Nazi to describe anyone, but am referring of course to the Seinfeld episode from which the phrase "Soup Nazi" originated. Yesterday, we were scheduled to go with the coop to the San Diego Zoo. But, the special bus tour for grades K-and-up that they arranged had filled up before I could get in line to sign D up for it. We are zoo members, and didn't have to worry about pre-paying for admission to the zoo, so we have opted to go as a family in November for Enrichment Weekend, where they have the zoo keepers come out and give talks on various animals around the Zoo. Masto Mama went with the coop and is planning on posting some pictures from their day, so be sure to hop over there some time today to check it out. So, that has pretty much been our week. Since an all-day field trip had been scheduled for yesterday, we were supposed to have a school-free day. We just used it to finish our work a day early and take today off, with the exception of the spelling quiz. So now I'm off to give that quiz, make sure I have all the supplies and food in order for D's birthday party (which is tomorrow), and give the boys some visiting time with my parents. |
| Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link |
|
Page 1 of 38 Last Page | Next Page |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | ||||||
.gif)
